


Same Deep Water As You

by wyntre



Series: The Space Between Words [5]
Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Established Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, Someone Help Will Graham
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:09:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23662882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyntre/pseuds/wyntre
Summary: What is it that haunts me, doctor?
Relationships: Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Series: The Space Between Words [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/785187
Kudos: 24





	Same Deep Water As You

**Author's Note:**

> I rewatched Hannibal again. Guess I never really left the fandom

Will wakes trembling, sweat-soaked and grasping at air as if trying to pluck his nightmare back from fading. The house is quiet in the first blush of morning, when the horizon is just painted orange and the brightest stars still linger in indigo. He had dreamed of an old case and the death of an old friend. Of things he thought forgotten. Flashes of Hobbs, and Abigail, mingled with Beverly’s sliced remains impaled on stag antlers. Something he'd considered to be buried beneath remoulded psyches and lives. Something he’d left behind so long ago. Gone, along with past normalcy and the hope he had ever had of stability. Gone when he had first laid a fractured gaze upon a sharp countenance and an open collar, for as long as he had tried to fight it; tried to cling to the vestiges of his frail humanity. Something that had been replaced with betrayal, forgiveness. All-consuming fire that had no end, and no beginning. Replaced with strong hands and broad shoulders and complete abandon. 

The figure beside him stirs, wakes and sits upright in bed; sleep tousled hair falling into hazel eyes. "Will?" The voice of fire on a winter's evening, warm and familiar. Hannibal reaches out and places a hand on Will's shoulder.

"Nightmare."

"Dreams are our way of processing the world around us when we cannot make sense of it." Hannibal pulls Will back against him, meeting passive resistance that he easily overrides. Will is trembling. "Focus on me, Will. Focus only on me.” 

Will inhales sharply, breathing cedar and _Hannibal_ ; he draws strength he didn't know he has lost. His paddle, his anchor in the storm. "We've done so much since Hobbs."

"Hobbs' ghost is not what haunts you.” Hannibal feels solid against his back, his hands around his waist are soft and strong. Will closes his eyes briefly, bathed in warmth and safety.

"What is it that haunts me, doctor?"

"Guilt."

"I don’t feel guilty for what we’ve done."

Hannibal presses a kiss on the top of Will’s head. "You are pure empathy, Will. Your innate nature is at odds with and shocked by associations that you never considered."

"Not anymore. We never survived separation, we never unentwined you and I." Will places a calloused hand over Hannibal’s. "I cannot tell where you end and I begin."

"Would you change it?"

Will shakes his head and turns to look at Hannibal. "Not for anything. You and I are so inextricable. I tried to walk away once; it didn’t work." Hannibal smiles and his intense gaze holds Will’s, the fractured sky after a storm and fragile. Always so fragile.

"No more nightmares, Will." He runs a thumb over Will’s cheekbone. Hannibal’s lips are pillow-soft and tender as they find their way to Will’s. And they kiss as if this morning were a dream and they are holding out hope that it will never fade to black. And Hannibal tangles long fingers in Will’s hair as they pull apart. "No more nightmares."


End file.
